About Me

I'm an elderly retired teacher who writes. Among my books are Ferradiddledumday (Appalachian version of the Rumpelstiltskin story), Stuck (middle grade paranormal novel), Patches on the Same Quilt (novel set in Franklin County, VA), Them That Go (an Appalachian novel), and several Kindle ebooks.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Two Photo Ops

Since Tuesday is Senior Citizens' Day at Kroger, naturally we went. When we were leaving, we passed a flock of gulls standing in the parking lot. Since we drove pretty close to them and they weren't leaving, I decided to roll down the window and get a picture.

They didn't mind being photographed. My husband suggested tossing out a couple of crackers, and I thought, what the heck. . . .

Suddenly all gull-hell broke loose, and I was busy closing the window so I didn't get a shot of the gull-gluttony that ensued. When they settled down a bit I resumed picture-taking.

I decided that it was a good thing I hadn't gotten out of the car to take pictures of the, uh, wild life. Notice in the pictures above and below that most the gulls are facing me. The looks on their faces gave flashbacks of seeing a certain Alfred Hitchcock film.

On the way home, I spotted another photo-op. This time I did get out of the car because (1) this herd lives across the road from me and (2) there was a fence between me and the subject of my photos. Can you see why I wanted to stop?

The tan cow had just given birth. The calf was still wet and its umbilical cord had apparently just broken. The calf was trying to nurse but hadn't quite gotten the hang of how things work.

It had to circle its mama a couple of times before it figured things out. I zoomed in so I wouldn't have to disturb them.

Eventually baby found what it was looking for.

With baby hanging on, mama rejoined her friends.

Looks like her friend is due to calve very soon. We didn't stick around, though, to see if that cow delivered. We had groceries to put away. Below is my parting shot of the herd.

Perhaps a rule of photographing critters—both wild and domestic—is stay in the car if you don't know them and maybe stay behind a fence if you do. Or something like that.